OT-ish: This can’t be good

[Bob Zelin]

I have heard all of this. Not only including Glass Door, but about reviews of AVID products on competing sites to Creative Cow that are not necessarily true.

But now matter what is said, there will remain the die-hard “don’t you tell me – every major motion picture and TV show is edited on AVID Media Composer”. They don’t say that they don’t own an AVID, but rent them from the large rental facilities in LA, that provide a temporary home for these AVID’s while a show or movie is in production, and then go back to the rental warehouse. And certainly these rental facilities have no incentive to say “hey, you guys should really check out this cheaper and better system, so you can work more efficiently, and I can make less money on the rental”.
And again – the die hards are all my age (over 45), with lots of experience (and lots of incentive to not learn anything new).

I lived thru this over and over again. Real movies and commercials could only be cut in film. Then on CMX. Then on AVID. And 4K and RED would never replace a 35 mm Arri or Panaflex. I was at a company today, where the excellent 30 year old editor simply REFUSES to learn Premiere (or X) because he just wants to use FCP 7. This trait defines getting old. Even if you are only 30.

And every “professional” knows that FCP-X, FCP 7, Premiere, Resolve, and everything else just sucks. See you gentlemen on the unemployment line.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Neil Goodman]

And apple has factory workers in China with horrible conditions where people are offing themselves. Whats worse? I dont know.

[Bob Zelin] “And again – the die hards are all my age (over 45), with lots of experience (and lots of incentive to not learn anything new). “

Im an avid “die hard” and I just turned 36. I know all the software packages including FCPX. I stay up to date.Call me crazy but I still choose Avid. The places Ive worked all choose Avid. I mkae more scrilla using an Avid. What can you do?

Every big corporation’s has layoffs. I’ve skated through 5 of them myslef and seen great friends lifes change in an instant after 20 years of solid serice. Its just the way it works when that much money if flowing around and someone has an idea on how to save more.

[Darren Roark]

[Neil Goodman] “And apple has factory workers in China with horrible conditions where people are offing themselves. Whats worse? I dont know. “

That is a misleading oversimplification of the situation. The claims that Mike Daisey sensationalized ended up being false to the point that “This American Life” and NPR had to issue full apologies after he admitted to making most of it up when they fact checked his claims.

The labor laws in China are deplorable, so much so that getting jobs at foxconn are considered the best of an otherwise terrible reality. People camp out just to apply as Apple sets much higher standards for their vendor’s factories than what is legally required there.

People keep saying the 5K iMac is the one to get, but I sleep a tiny bit better knowing my ‘trash can’ was assembled in Texas.

[Andrew Kimery]

Not good, though if we thought FCP 7 was a Zombie program I can only imagine how long MC will keep going if it’s plug suddenly gets pulled.

[Darren Roark]

[Andrew Kimery] “I can only imagine how long MC will keep going if it’s plug suddenly gets pulled.”

If it’s anything like how long people are keeping ScriptSync alive by not updating MC or their OS, probably quite a while. Yeesh.

[Tim Wilson]

[Darren Roark] “[Andrew Kimery] “I can only imagine how long MC will keep going if it’s plug suddenly gets pulled.”

If it’s anything like how long people are keeping ScriptSync alive by not updating MC or their OS, probably quite a while. Yeesh.”

If the timetable is anything like FCP Legend, we can assume its post-plug-pulled life is >5 years.

Of course, there’s still a long, long way from an unspecified number of layoffs to the end of active MC development. I didn’t see anything in the snapshot linked even hinting that the cuts are overweighted in engineering.

On the contrary, Avid development is on a huge roll right now. Did you really check out Avid’s NAB stories? Hugely ambitious, with a scope all-but-unmatched in a year of largely incremental announcements elsewhere. As I wrote in my NAB summary, I’m a huge fan of increments, but I’ll add here that I’m also a fan of swinging for the fences. My summary included some very specific examples of Avid doing exactly that.

Again speaking only on the basis of a couple of paragraphs, I don’t see any evidence that, after going pedal to the metal for a very long time to bring those product lines to fruition, non-specified (and as yet unconfirmed??) layoffs suggest that Avid is suddenly slamming the brakes on development.

[Ronny Courtens]

Bob,

If by “reviews that are not necessarily true” you mean the info we gave on FCP.co about the ISIS 5500 not working for Swiss national television, what can I say. They have tested it thoroughly, they even had an Avid reseller/integrator from Paris trying to fix things, and they found it did not meet their expectations at all. While the ShareStation that LumaForge installed was up and running in a fraction of the time they spent on other systems, and its still works to their full satisfaction.

They were pretty vocal about the other solutions they tried. We have recorded their reactions and we have published them word for word, with their permission and after sending the article to them for review. I even was so decent to cut the actual names of the other systems out of the video testimonials. If those people want to talk about a negative experience with Avid or any other manufacturer, they have every right to do so. And those people are not idiots. They are highly qualified video engineers who manage quite complex systems, just like you.

– Ronny

[Neil Sadwelkar]

But didn’t this happen in Feb?
https://www.betaboston.com/news/2016/02/29/avid-technology-slims-down-again/

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Ronny –
to quickly defend myself, I am NOT talking about the fcp.co article, and I am also pretty anti AVID these days.
You know that I am a huge fan of LumaForge, although this product will not do AVID bin locking, required by most
AVID facilities. And why anyone would buy an ISIS when they can buy a Facilis, or EditShare (or SNS EVO or Tiger Share) is beyond me (yes, I know the AVID product is now the Nexis). I have no problem with Media Composer – it’s a great editing program – I have a problem with the company and it’s policies, and I have had this issue since they became a public company years ago and changed their policies.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Scott Witthaus]

[Tim Wilson] “Avid development is on a huge roll right now. Did you really check out Avid’s NAB stories? Hugely ambitious, with a scope all-but-unmatched in a year of largely incremental announcements elsewhere”

That’s the problem, Tim. Avid is getting hammered for what many see as unrealistic goals based on the overall market and it’s marketshare. I really don’t think they have a vision of what the “restructured” Avid is going to look like in 2017. What is this “huge development” roll going to do right now? I mean, the PR department is pretty good because we see all these releases about what film was cut on Avid and that some community college in Connecticut just bought a storage system, but what is the goal in realistic terms?

They are losing money, taking on debt and still have another employee adjustment supposedly coming this week. Oh, and how about a forced furlough at the end of a financial quarter for upper ranks and a “suggested” furlough for lower ranks just to show their loyalty to the company just for yucks? All the while paying tens of millions of dollars out in upper management bonuses (and their CFO quit in April or sometime recently).

I made a good living on Avid up until about a decade ago when it started to become harder to find a system to use. I like the product with friends still working at Avid, but I am with Bob in that I think the company is rotten at many places at the top. It just feels like a “break up and sell” policy happening. Just my own humble opinion. It’s gotta be a shitty place to work right now and if I am Adobe or BMD, I am doing what it takes to pick off the best and brightest left over there.

Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter